AU4807401A - Method and apparatus for demographic payment comparison and alternative service offer system - Google Patents

Description

-1- Field of Invention The present invention relates generally to a computer-based system apparatus and particularly to methods and means for making anonymous comparisons of payments for services, and to methods and means for soliciting alternative service offers.

Background It is know to use central bill paying services to pay a plurality of service providers, by telephone or Internet means. It is also know for certain service providers to provide comparison data of the payment for a current period against a plurality of payments for pervious periods. However it is not known in current bill paying services to have a means for accumulation of data regarding the tabulation of amounts against demographic data, such as postcode or number of adults in the residence. Therefore there are no comparisons or recommendations presented to customers from such bill paying services.

Where bill-paying services do provide comparisons these comparisons are usually 00 for one customer comparing the payments across different billing periods or seasons. Where other comparisons are provided they are not comparisons 20 between different service providers or across demographic groupings. For example, no service is known which provides comparative telephone charges for an above 70-year old resident in a one-person household of a particular postal code as compared to other similar residents. Nor for gas or electricity, or insurance, etc.

The object of the invention is to provide such comparisons and ratings, allowing more active consumer choice and potential economic benefits. This is particularly important where alternative service providers are available from which customers may choose a similar service.

The invention would provide some advice as to possible causes of action, according to the comparison data for each customer. For example it may recommend a consultation with an independent expert in the field of a particular S-2service. It may recommend calling the service provider. It may ask the customer if they would be part of a survey group about their purchasing and usage habits of a particular class of service.

The invention requires access to service payment records in order to be of utility.

These payment records are incorporated into the system, as the basis for the statistical analysis. At present payment systems such as BPAY in Australia can provide such records. It is in the interests of service providers to provide such records as it helps customers compare and to choose their service if they are the most cost-effective. To not participate would indicate an unwillingness to be compared, which would be seen as a negative from a consumer's perspective.

Thus cooperating billing systems are important facilitators of the invention but outside the scope of the invention.

It is advantageous to allow customers to compare expenditure for various utility and other services such as insurance for the purpose of evaluating their best options. This is more advantageous where utilities such as gas and electricity are Sprovided competitively whereas in a previous era such services were often S"monopolies.

.The key objective of the present invention is to provide economic benefit to customers by showing comparisons of their expenses as compared to others in similar demographic categories. In particular this service will request alternative service offers for services as requested by the users of the system for their types of service and in their demographic segments e.g. seniors households within a *nominated postal code and its neighbours. These features are desirable in order to provide economic benefit to users of the invention.

-3- Summary of the Invention According to a feature of the invention the system provides anonymous statistics, including averages, of bills for particular classes of services and demographic categories. By comparing the payments of individual customers against these anonymous statistics, and making this available to clients, the clients can make rational economic choices using data that was otherwise unavailable. The clients may be an individual or another system or a group of customers of similar needs.

According to an embodiment, the invention requires a database of records, which represent customer payments across as wide a range of services as possible.

And in particular within one class of service e.g. household insurance, as wide a range of service providers as possible. Where adequate volume of records, and diversity of services and service providers exists, the invention will perform to advantage. The invention will also recommend alternative service offers if a client or group appears to be paying too much compared to the demographic averages according to parameters determined within an embodiment of the invention.

oeas eooo *eoo EDITORIAL NOTE No. 48074/01 Pages 4 to 10 are claims pages.

-11 Brief Description of the Drawings FIG 1 is a general schematic illustrating the components of the apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

FIG 2A is a general logic diagram illustrating one embodiment and its links with external systems.

FIG 2B is another diagram featuring a different embodiment to FIG 2A whereas FIG 2A features in the main network interfaces FIG2B features in the main application program interfaces.

FIG 3 is a flow chart illustrating the process whereby payment records are entered into the database store.

FIG 4A is flow chart illustrating a request comparison from a customer to the apparatus. FIG 4B is a block diagram showing the retrieve and calculate operation. FIG 4C is a flow chart illustrating the reporting of the comparison request. FIG 4D is a flow chart illustrating the request to alternative service providers. FIG 4E is a flowchart illustrating the reporting of the request for S. alternative service providers.

20 FIG 5 is a schematic illustrating the existence of multiple alternate service providers.

FIG 6 is a schematic facsimile of a web-browser screen displaying illustrative inputs for requesting a payment comparison report.

FIG 7 is a schematic facsimile of a web-browser screen displaying illustrative 25 results of a payment comparison request.

FIG 8 is a schematic facsimile of a web-browser screen displaying illustrative inputs for requesting an alternative service offer.

se* FIG 9 is a schematic facsimile of a web-browser displaying illustrative results of an alternative service offer request.

FIG 10 A is a schematic of a customer details database store, FIG 1 OB a demographic details database store, and FIG 10C a service provider database store.

-12- Detailed Description of the Invention Implementation embodiments of the present invention include a computer program which resides in a network accessible to customers. Although the present invention will be described with reference to certain specific embodiments thereof, including data structures, processes etc... it can be appreciated by one skilled in the art that these specific details disclosed herein for the purpose of providing an understanding of the present invention, and do not limit its scope. It can be appreciated by one skilled in the art that one skilled in the art may perform many departures and other modifications of the implemented embodiments of the present invention. This invention can be practiced without these specific details.

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for comparing customer expenditure data classified according to demographic categories. The system stores database records of payments made to service providers along with demographic information such as postal code, number of people in a household, and age of the principals associated with the payment, as well as details of the service provider and period for which the payment is made. Further, the system solicits alternative service offers where the customer seeks a cheaper or better 20 service.

i 1 When a customer wants to benefit from the present invention, and this "customer" 9 9 may be another peer system, the invention takes an inquiry that specifies the type of service and the associated data for which a comparison report is required. This 25 may be for a gas service, for a home insurance service, for motor vehicle insurance, for electricity service etc. For each type of service the characterizing data is submitted, such as the period of the last gas bill and the amount, or the o. type of motor vehicle and the amount paid for insurance, and the demographic characterization of the household FIG 6.

The invention retrieves relevant stored records from its database store 160 and calculates comparative payment statistics and reports these back to the inquirer FIG 7, which may be another system. The source data within the system, which -13forms the basis of the comparison, remains anonymous to the inquirer. Where the inquirer is another system, which therefore requires a system-to-system embodiment, such embodiment can be achieved using "web service" technologies as described in detail below. These technologies, such as SOAP and XML allow for the implementation of the present invention as a web service as in known in the art.

The invention also processes on-the-fly the least cost providers for the services that are the subject of the request within the demographics of the inquiry e.g.

within a postal code and its neighbours FIG 7.

Further, the invention recognizes that when the customer is paying more than the average calculated during the retrieval process and prompts the customer to seek alternative service offers FIG 8. These alternative service offers are made to cooperating service providers through system links and provide quotes back to the customer relevant to their demographics e.g. postal code or age or number or number of people in household. An exemplary embodiment of this feature is described in detail below.

FIG 1 shows an embodiment of the system in which the components are S"assembled in a single computing apparatus 100 which may be a server-side system or a web service. Other systems communicate with this embodiment through the input 110, output 120 and interface devices, and these communications may be directly through application programming interfaces or via common networking facilities including the Internet. The interfaces are prior art published interfaces known to those who program such interfaces whether embedded in another application or communicating to open networks or to webbased services.

S@O 30 The invention contains a database store 160, which in exemplary form can be a relational database and management system. This database store is the prime repository of the payment and demographic records which provide the data for the underlying analysis performed by the invention.

-14- FIG 2 shows the apparatus 100 on the left-hand side, with illustrative links to payment systems 210 for the provision of payment records to the inventions database store, with links to service providers 220 or the purpose of obtaining alternative offers, and to web servers 230 and web browsers 240 for the purpose of communicating with customers of the invented service. For illustrative purposes such links are shown going through a network 250, but some of these links may be through program interfaces and other program-to-program interfaces well known to those practiced in the art using such technologies as SOAP and XML.

For example FIG 2B the apparatus 100 is closely coupled to an third-party application 270 through an application program interface 260, and also linked through the embedded applications to payment systems 210 and service providers 220. This is to illustrate that the invention may be embodied in a number of forms and be integrated into the service offerings of third parties as by licensing or on other commercial terms and conditions.

The first step to produce utility from the invention is to load the database store with records suitable for later analysis. For a particular customer the prior step is to register with the system. FIG3 shows the receipt of payment records 300 and their loading into the database store 160. An embodiment is via known programming *constructions to access and retrieve such payment records from other services where payments are made. In Australia, for illustration, these could include BPAY, the Banks, automated Credit Union systems and others. Such records would be loaded initially and then transferred periodically in order to maintain the currency of CO l the database store within the apparatus.

The database store is further schematically illustrated in FIG 10A, FIG 10OB, FIG OC which show at least key contents of the components of the database store being the customers details 310 FIG 10A, demographic details 320 FIG 30 and service provider details 330 FIG The payment records must contain basic customer details 310 but less than full customer details as kept by a bank system e.g. no address is required by the apparatus, however a postal code or geographic marker is required. The customer details 310 are anonymous and contain links 1015 to demographic data, and which latter is the key to the method of producing reports from inquiries about payments responsive to demographic statistics. Demographic details 320 include the aforementioned postal code 1021 or geographic markers, and also ages 1022, number in household 1023, and others depending on the scope of the demographic comparisons to be performed. The invention is not limited in this respect, except to the extent that the base information is able to be made available. For example if data about ethnic origin was available then the system could produce statistics for home' insurance for certain ethnic origin classes in certain age groups in certain postal code districts.

Service provider details 330 include the payment amount 1034 and type of service 1032 and the relevant service period 1033 e.g. home insurance for one year or gas usage for a nominated period. These details are associated with the payment of the bill and are retrieved or sent from the service provider to form the service provider database 330. The service provider database illustratively includes a link 1035 to extra information such information being dependent on the type of payment represented by the record. For example if the type of service 1032 was a gas bill then the link 1035 may be null. However if the type of payment was for car insurance the link 1035 to extra information would link to records and data .*.describing car insurance parameters such as make, model, age, owner claim status etc. The protocol for describing and interpreting such extra fields can be embodied in the transfer of information from service providers though such •technologies as SOAP and XML.

".After the database store 160 has been initialized with information records a request comparison is made as illustrated in FIG 4A. This request comparison 410 may come from a customer at a web browser 240 or through an application program interface 260. But in any case the request will ask for a comparison 30 operation to be made for a certain variety of service e.g. gas, for a certain period e.g. the last billing period, and for certain demographic groups e.g. people with 2 adults in the household aged between 45 and 55 and living in postcode area 3193.

This request 410 can be visualized in the exemplary form of FIG 6, as from a web browser 240.

-16- The apparatus 100 receives the request comparison 410 and the key demographic fields are extracted and used to search the database store. An efficient embodiment of this search is through indices compiled for records as they entered into the database store 160. That is, for illustrative purposes, an index of postal codes, or age groups, or number of people in a household could be constructed.

Using such keys records are retrieved which match the input data keys and during this retrieve and calculate operation 415 tables of statistics are constructed. Such an exemplary table would be gas usage statistics for the illustrated query namely households of 2 adults in the age range 46 to 55 in postal code area 3193 (FIG 6).

The table would include values such as the mean, the median, the standard deviation, minimum and maximum and the cheapest 2 gas service providers found, on average, for that category. This is reported back 420 to the inquiring party as a report or a file depending on the embodiment. A report to a web browser-based user FIG 7 or a file or electronic record to an associated program request FIG2B.

The report FIG 7 show a typical key output from the invention and demonstrates its utility by allowing people to compare their expenses for common services 20 against similar households.

The invention describes requests not only from a customer but also a request signaling a "group of customers" for comparison. This is illustrated as follows. An ooooo associated system FIG2B or web-based interface 240 can request a comparison for a subject being a demographic group, rather than a single demographic unit such as a single household. In this group example a request comparison 410 would provide a "target group" e.g. all people over age 55 with one person in the household, in a postal code or set of postal codes. The request comparison 410 would also contain a "comparison group" such as another postal code or set of postal codes, and for example another age group category e.g. aged 65 or over with 2 people in the household.

The retrieve and calculate function 415 responds with a comparison between the "comparison group" and the "target group". This is achieved by accessing the -17database store 160 using programming methods as are well known in the art and consistent with those described in the case of the single customer request described above and illustrated by FIG 6 e.g. via indices and search and calculate functions on the database store.

The illustration of the comparison report in FIG 7 offers the customer a choice to ask for alternative service offers, which is a feature of the invention. If this alternative service offer request is selected by the customer then FIG 8 illustrates the nature of the interaction. The invention seeks parameters which characterize the service, such as the quantity of gas usage over the last period FIG 8, or in the case of motor vehicle insurance the type and age and condition of the motor vehicle.

The exemplary system also accepts statements regarding "other conditions" and these are sent to the alternative service providers and may be parsed and interpreted by them according to their own systems capabilities and processing.

Certain illustrative requests are made of the customer such as "Will you accept the cheapest offer" since in this case the invention may initiate automated completion of the transaction should a cheaper offer be found. This completion mechanism is 20 not an intrinsic part of the claims for the invention but is an illustration of its potential utility.

Having submitted a request for alternative service offers FIG 8 the system S" connects with appropriate service providers 440 to request quotes. This would be to a range of service providers for each class of service FIG 5 e.g. for gas 510 or home insurance 530. Such B2B interfaces are as known in the art.

The teaching of the "alternative service offer" feature of the invention invokes new technologies such as SOAP and XML, and the known concept of web services.

30 By these it is meant the matter of communicating with one of a plurality of other computer system applications, capable of responding with offers, and as such is known to artisans in the field. SOAP is a protocol for exchanging messages, particularly across the Internet and using the HTTP protocol. SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol, and its implementation through technologies -18offered by IBM, or Microsoft, or SUN, and is becoming standardised through the World Wide Web Consortium W3C is becoming well known.

SOAP allows a computer application, as in the present invention, to package messages to send to another cooperating application across the Internet. That is, the receiving application can be "remote" and its physical location is not relevant to the construction, communication and processing of the message. The SOAP message is fundamentally a message and not a command or function, however a message may interpreted and then responded to with another message. So in the case of the present invention a message requesting a service offer is encoded and placed in a SOAP envelope which contains an XML encoded message and indications to the receiver as to how to process this package.

The SOAP benefits are that it supplies information about its package the XML including information about the recipient and sender, and also information about how the message can or must be processed. Thus a receiving application can determine, amongst other things, if it actually is able to process the particular SOAP message.

20 The alternative service offer feature of the present invention can be embodied in a simple SOAP package containing for example, the type of service required, the area or location, and the features, and the period for which a quote or offer is required. For example, a package may contain a request for the supply of gas, for the suburb of Port Melbourne, for a period of 3 months. Or another example may oooo be a request for car insurance for a Honda Civic Sedan, garaged in Port Melbourne, with no drivers less than 25 years old, and no claims made in the last 3 years. These messages can all be encoded and communicated in SOAP/XML and communicated to cooperating service providers, that is communicated to their web service center for receiving and responding to such SOAP requests.

S. The teaching of the SOAP embodiment to illustrate the present invention can also be extended to other parts of the embodiment, for instance the access to and transfer of payment records as previously described. Such art is not limited simply to the instant explanation of the "alternative service offer" feature of the invention.

-19- The feature of present invention of soliciting an alternative offer can be further taught to illustrate its advantages. When a customer, registered with a service that embodies the invention, requests an alternative quote for electricity the following process demonstrates the utility of this feature. The customer's record includes their location, perhaps by a postal code, and records of payments to electricity suppliers of all the members registered with the system of the present invention.

The method illustratively executes the following steps: Search the current location for all electricity companies with records in the database store; If alternative electricity supply companies exist, and the sample size is sufficient, then go to step 4; Otherwise "expand" the location and go to step 1; Sort and calculate the average payments for customers with similar demographics to the active customer; If the sample size is sufficient go to step 7; Otherwise "expand" the location and go to step 1; Find the lowest cost service providers and if lower than the active customer's bill present this selection option to the customers FIG 8.

The method above may "expand" the location by various means such as neighbouring postal codes or suburbs, and the determination of an "adequate" 20 sample size is as determined by best practice. The method of expanding a search area by neighbouring postal codes is know as for instance in searching on-line yellow page directories. The end result, of this or alternate embodiments using this objective as the goal, is a selection of ranked electricity suppliers for the current example.

Certain illustrative requests are made of the customer such as "Will you accept the cheapest offer" since in this case the invention may initiate automated completion of the transaction should a cheaper offer be found. This completion mechanism is not an intrinsic part of the claims for the invention but is an illustration of its potential utility.

Having submitted a request for alternative service offers FIG 8 the system connects with appropriate service providers 440 to request quotes. This would be to a range of service providers for each class of service FIG 5 e.g. for gas 510 or home insurance 530. Such B2B interfaces are as known in the art as described in detail for the SOAP embodiment of this feature.

The present invention completes the alternative service offer report 450 to the customer and if responding to a web based inquiry reports back FIG 9. Here the customer may view the alternative service providers and the estimated savings as compared to the current payments of the customer to their current provider. FIG 9, for illustration, also prompts the customer to speak to a service representative live by invoking the service from the screen, as know in the art e.g. LIPSTREAM, HumanClick.

Thus the invention is illustrated to receive inquires for comparisons against customers of nominated demographic groups with respect to common services and to offer reports and alternatives including the automated request of alternative service offers.

A number of embodiments of the present invention have been described.

Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without 000* departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, other 20 embodiments are within the scope of the claims.

The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia.

0* see Walter J Adamson May 24, 2001

Claims (30)

1. A computerized system for collecting receiving initiating processing storing and transmitting combinations of statistical data comparing customers and payments for particular classes of services across common and different demographic classes and for seeking and receiving offers from alternative service providers, the system comprising: An input device for receiving information about an account transaction, a customer and demographic data wherein at least the demographic data can be associated with a customer and a payment record, and for receiving requests for operations against the stored information; A memory or database store of records of payment of debts of customers for services including the associated demographic data, account transaction data and customer identity data; A computing device being a programmed digital computer programmed to *respond to the information received from the input device and stored in a memory device, and to perform a first operation of creating and adding said input information to the stored information, and to perform second operation to process said stored information in response to receiving requests from the input device, and to perform a third operation to send the results of such "requests to an output device and to perform a fourth operation to seek and ::compare alternative service offers; An interface device for transmitting and receiving data transmissions requesting and receiving alternative service offers; An output device, coupled to said computing device, to receive and transmit the results of the operations performed by the computing device in a form and protocol as required for further transmission, display or use of the computed information provided by the computing device.

2. A device according to claim 1 wherein said input device is capable of connecting to other machines, input devices, software services, web services, computing devices and human input devices for the purpose of receiving information and requests for information via common protocols including electronic email.

3. A device according to claim 1 wherein the said account transaction includes payment or expenditure data with respect to a payment made by said customer.

4. A device according to claim 1 wherein the said records contain indicators of the characteristics of the service for which the payment or expenditure was paid. A device according to claim 4 wherein the said characteristics includes the type or service and the period and or date for which the payment applied.

6. A device according to claim 1 wherein said associated demographic data applies to said customer and said payment.

7. A device according to claim 6 wherein said demographic data includes at least *postal code or other equivalent area code data. 20 8. A device according to claim 6 wherein said demographic data further includes community demographics being age, sex, income, ethnic group, working status, family income, household income, number in household, number of adults in household, number of children in household.

9. A device according to claim 8 wherein household includes a house, flat, home unit or dwelling being the recipient of a bill or account from a utility or service provider for services or products rendered to that household. :10. A device according to claim 1 wherein said stored information is in a database being a relational or other prior art database type or new database type in the future as normally used by an expert in database analysis and programming. -6-

11. A device according to claim 1 wherein said first operation is the construction of record or records which represent in the stored memory the account transaction, customer and demographic data received from the input device.

12. A device according to claim 1 wherein said second operation performs a retrieval operation of stored information according to keys and characteristics of requests received from the input device, and performs calculations using fields and data from such requests and retrieved information as from the stored information.

13. A device according to claim 1 wherein said third operation transmits the results of said second operation to the output device.

14. A device according to claim 1 wherein said output device is capable of connecting to other machines, input devices, software services, web services, computing devices and human input devices for the purpose of sending information from the apparatus in common protocols including electronic email. el.15. A device according to claim 1 wherein said interface device provides links to one of a plurality of computer systems of service providers via network gateways capable of transmitting and receiving comparative offer information in common protocols including electronic email.

16. A method of using a device for calculating average payments for customers 25 for groups of customers for similar classes of services and providing •eel *.*comparisons across said customers as sorted and selected by demographic keys and time period data and capable of soliciting alternative service offers, comprising the steps of: a first operation of collecting and storing the database records via the input device from a plurality of sources and systems and interfaces; a second operation of retrieving the records from the database associated with index keys and producing statistical data relevant to those records and a particular customer or groups of customers; -7- a third operation of reporting to a particular customer or group of customers comparative payment information; a fourth operation of seeking alternative service providers.

17. A method according to claim 16 wherein the first operation includes indexing the key demographic and customer variables and storing such records in whole or part as a database store capable of efficiently storing and retrieving such records and indices.

18. A method according to claim 16 wherein the second operation includes responding to external requests from one of a plurality of sources via the input device to produce information needed to report against an inquiry from a particular customer or group of customers.

19. A method according to claim 16 wherein the second operation of retrieving of the records from the database store further comprises the steps of: making a relational database join as is know in the art of retrieving records **from a database; executing a join operation being a step of searching and identifying those database records which match the criteria describing the particular customer or groups of customers and their demographic data and time periods being the customer segment of interest and the derived database records of interest; collecting data from relevant fields of said retrieved database storage records as such data is retrieved or upon collecting such data in memory of the device of claim 1; performing statistical and grouping operations on said relevant fields of data providing a table or means of access to said tabulated fields.

20. A method according to claim 16 wherein said second operation includes calculating statistical data from said relevant retrieved fields of data from the database storage. -8-

21. A method according to claim 16 wherein said statistical data comprises averages, means standard deviations, minimums, maximums, medians, total number of records, period data and derived period data.

22. A method according to claim 21 wherein said period data includes the calendar or time period which is input as time period data plus derived period data related to the input customer or customer group time period data.

23. A method according to claim 19, further comprising the steps of retrieving of records from the database including records associated with the derived period data for inclusion in the statistical data calculations.

24. A method according to claim 16 wherein said time period data describes the time period associated with customer storage and retrieval and reporting records, being: The date of payment or the period of payment for the service provided as described by the customer-input record or the customer storage record in the database storage; In the case of an inquiry performed by the steps of the said second operation may be a single date, a period, or null. A method according to claim 23 wherein said derived period data is calculated as being the last payment period if the time period data is null, or the last payment period which includes the time period data if it is a single date. *26. A method according to claim 18 wherein the said criteria describing a customer or groups of customers comprises customer or customer group identifiers and associated demographic identifiers and demographic categories and subcategories.

27. A method according to claim 16 wherein said third operation comprises the steps of reporting the results of the said comparative payment analysis to a customer including the formatting and communicating of said comparison to -9- the output device for transmission in a best form and protocol to one of a plurality of customer interface devices and systems.

28. A method according to claim 16 wherein the said third operation includes the provision to maintain the privacy and anonymity of the customers whose records are used in the statistical and grouping operations of said second operation.

29. A method according to claim 16 wherein said reporting includes reports of a selection of the cheapest or recommended service providers providing services to the category or demographic group represented by the customer or group of customers being the subject of the query of the said second operation. A method according to claim 16 wherein the said fourth operation comprises the steps of: 0 determining if an alternative service offer is required; e characterizing the subject service being the subject of the query of said second operation; le0* linking to service offer providers and transmitting and receiving service offer information; e comparing and reporting alternative service offers.

31. A method according to claim 30 wherein the said determining comprises the steps of deriving a criteria by comparing payments for the inquiring customers or group of customers against the statistical and grouping results from the third operation.

32. A method according to claim 31 wherein said criteria determines the further Si.. execution of the fourth operation.

33. A method according to claim 30 wherein said characterising step includes identifying and codifying the type of service and the duration and terms of service for which alternative service offers are required.

34. A method according to claim 30 wherein said linking step includes connecting to at least one of a plurality of systems of respective service providers via the interface device to obtain service offers for comparison and presentation to the inquiring customer or group of customers. A method according to claim 30 wherein said comparing comprises an evaluation of the offers of responding service providers against said characterizing of services for which the offers are solicited.

36. A method according to claim 30 wherein said comparing selects lower priced equivalent offers of services which comply with said characterizing of services for which offers were solicited to be included in said reporting of alternative service offers.

37. A method according to claim 30 wherein said comparing and reporting includes the steps of formatting and communicating of tables, lists and information to the output device for transmission in a best form and protocol to one of a plurality of customer interface devices and systems.

38. A computerized system for collecting, receiving, initiating, processing, storing, reporting and transmitting combinations of statistical records comparing customers and payments for particular classes of services across common and different demographic classes including: processing means for averaging and calculating other common statistics for said records within the categories of said demographic classes; reporting means to a particular customer providing said customer's expenditure as compared to anonymous averages for similar demographic groups as for example by postal code, age, number of adult children in the residence associated with the payment; ensuring anonymous information and data except that information relating to the said particular customer who is the primary recipient of the report; soliciting recommendations from alternative service providers based upon and derived from said comparisons and other customer usage and demographic data and information held with the system.